4498. LAW, George III. vs.—
His Majesty
has permitted our laws to be neglected
in England for years, neither confirming them
by his assent, nor annulling them by his negative:
so that such of them as have no suspending
clause we hold on the most precarious
of all tenures, his Majesty's will; and
such of them as suspend themselves till his
Majesty's assent be obtained, we have feared,
might be called into existence at some future
and distant period, when the time and change
of circumstances shall have rendered them destructive
to his people here. And to render
this grievance still more oppressive, his Majesty
by his instructions has laid his Governors
under such restrictions, that they can pass no
law of any moment unless it have such suspending
clause: so that, however immediate
may be the call for legislative interposition,
the law cannot be executed till it has twice
crossed the Atlantic, by which time the evil
may have spent its whole force.—
Rights of British America. Washington ed. i, 136.
Ford ed., i, 440.
(1774)
